‘Gone with the Wind’ at 75: Its Jewish influence

The 75th anniversary of the premiere of “Gone with the Wind” on Dec. 15 presents an opportunity to examine the Jewish influence on one of the most popular films of all time. That influence starts with the American Civil War epic’s famed producer, David O. Selznick.

Adjusted for inflation, “Gone with the Wind” remains the highest-grossing movie ever made. It earned the 1939 Academy Award for Best Picture, the same honor another Selznick film, “Rebecca,” garnered in 1940. Selznick was born in 1902 to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh. He worked as an apprentice to his father Lewis, a silent film distributor, until 1923, when Lewis declared bankruptcy. That event may have had something to do with Selznick’s fear of failure—a fear that propelled him toward success. 

David Thomson, author of the 1993 book “Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick,” believes Selznick had the most interesting career path of the legendary movie producers because he began in the studio system, went independent, and experienced both success and failure.

According to Thomson, Selznick did not an observant Jew, yet his Jewish upbringing did influence his sense of storytelling and character development, especially for female characters like “Gone with the Wind” protagonist Scarlett O’Hara. According to Thomson, it started with Selznick being part of the group of Eastern European immigrants and their descendants who came from poor backgrounds, but later became wealthy and successful in the film industry. 

“They had been very nervous of there being an anti-Semitic reaction to their success and to the film business,” Thomson said of Jewish film industry giants like Selznick. “In the early days of the movies, there was a lot of talk from other churches, academia, and government to the effect that the movies were dragging young people down a dark and wrong path. They were nervous about having it identified as a Jewish operation. Not many of them made a big point of stressing Jewishness and did not like to deal with what you might call Jewish subjects.